I was watching some Realtree program and "ace" hunter Michael Waddle was bowhunting somewhere.

Here comes a nice buck.

And the amazing part is it had two huge, round, yellow tags on each ear with the number 89 on them. And also a leather COLLAR with a radio hanging off the bottom.

He shoots this deer that was probably just released from a crate nearby and is all happy and pumping his fist. He's showing off the deer horns and the big yellow 89 tags are dangling from the ears and the radio trasmitter is dangling off the big leather collar.

It's most likely that the deer is part of a research program. I shot a doe just like you describe and I'm not hunting caged animals.

Nothing like the benefit of the doubt.

__________________
Still happily answering to the call-sign Peetza.
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The problem, as you so eloquently put it, is choice.
-The Architect
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He is no fool who gives what he can not keep to gain what he can not lose.
-Jim Eliott, paraphrasing Philip Henry.

Does not mean a thing. Shooting waterfowl with a leg band is no big deal. An ear tag and radio collar may, or may not mean a thing. I'll need more info to say. I'd think that the reasons should be explained at some point in the program particularly since it was obvious they were there.

I don't watch hunting shows.....for a number of reasons not germain to the OP......but as I've caught tagged fish, shot one tagged duck, seen a couple of tagged bears, and eaten some of the best wild hog in the world off the carcus of a cut and release.....I'll give him the benifit.

I'm bettin' there will be some collared and tagged wolves shot in the inaugural season this fall. First Wild Turkey I ever harvested back in the first modern turkey season in Wisconsin had wing bands on it from research done on the flocks before they were legal game. I've seen some of those tagged Wisconsin deer while motorcycling thru Sawyer County and would not hesitate to shoot them as they were as wild and free as any other Wisconsin deer. I believe they were on public land also............

Here in Colorado, wild deer and elk are trapped in the winter month when they are hungry and easily lead into a trap by food. They are ear tagged and neck banded and released within hours of capture. The state requires any tagged animal that has been shot, to turn over to the state the ear tags and collar and describe where taken. This is how they determine where deer travel.

Well I'm probably wrong for criticizing then but in all my years I've never known any state that sticks six inch diameter yellow tags on both ears (earings?) and a big leather radio collar on them. Really weird. It would appear that if that was for some "study" or something that it would be illegal to shoot them.

But I apologize Michael. I just couldn't get myself to shoot a deer full of tags and collars.

I guess if my freezer was empty and we needed the meat badly, I'd consider shooting this marked deer. Otherwise I'd pass.

Here's an article showing a deer similar to the one described in Warbirdlover's OP. It states the biologists tagged and collared wild free roaming bucks 3 1/2 years old and older. These are the animals the majority of deer hunters are after, but very few are able to harvest, because in the wild, in their natural state, without putting them behind a high fence and feeding them, where hunters have free access without having to PTH, they seldom live that long. In the state Warbirdlover and I hunt, the average age of bucks harvested is still only about 2 1/2 years of age. Just a few years ago the average was 1 1/2. Also, most that harvest bucks around here are after horn, not meat. Very few Wisconsinites are subsistence hunters. Most like me, would prefer to harvest a mature buck compared to an antlerless deer, but would rather eat a fat doe as opposed to a old rank buck.

I'm not defending TV hunting shows as I know most are staged and are done with the help of guides and outfitters on land with limited access or behind high fences on a PTH property. I seldom watch them, with NWTF's "Turkey Call" the exception. But I certainly would not let a 4 1/2 year old buck of a lifetime walk because it wore ear tags from recent biological research. I doubt very much you or anyone else here would either.

If you talk to a biologist about shooting a tagged deer they will ask you not to do it. It takes alot of time and money to tag an animal and then they'd really like to study it until it dies at a ripe old age.

If you talk to a biologist about shooting a tagged deer they will ask you not to do it. It takes alot of time and money to tag an animal and then they'd really like to study it until it dies at a ripe old age.

Just because something is legal doesn't make it smart. Just because something is smart doesn't make it legal.

I'd be very surprised if it wasnt a high fence private hunt.
Most of those hunting shows are complete bogus. I cant watch them anymore.
99% of them are high fence hunts. I've talked with guides that have taken out some supposed to be expert hunters, and you would be amazed at how much BS and lying is involved.
The TV bowhunters are the worst.

Most people that are involved in hunting one way or another to make a living eventually "sell out" their morals. Years back I caught a major north east writer using deer lure, before it was legal , in a wooded area behind my parents house.
This Waddel character advertises for "Deer cocaine" or something like that. You know, the stuff kids and newbees buy. Take it from there.

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